[Air-L] Call for papers: ECPR Panel on 'Digital media, civil society and anti-corruption from the grassroots'

[Anastasia Kavada]

**Apologies for Cross-posting **

Dear all,

please see below for the Call for Paper proposals for a panel on ''Digital media, civil society and anti-corruption from the grassroots" which will take place at the next ECPR conference in Innsbruck (26-28 August 2020) as part of the section on "Corruption Mechanisms and Anti-Corruption Agenda in the Digital Age: Continuity and Change".  Please send your paper proposals (up to 500 words) to Alice Mattoni at alice.mattoni at unibo.it<mailto:alice.mattoni at unibo.it> by 10 February 2020.

The panel is organized in the framework of the BIT-ACT research project<https://site.unibo.it/bit-act/en> funded by the European Research Council (G.A. N° 802362) and aims at connecting the BIT-ACT research team with other scholars who deal with similar topics in other academic institutions across the world.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alice if you have any questions.

Many thanks,
Alice Mattoni


Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), Innsbruck, 26-28 August 2020

Panel Title: Digital media, civil society and anti-corruption from the grassroots
Chair: Alice Mattoni (Associate Professor, Department of Political and Social Sciences University of Bologna)
Discussant: Anastasia Kavada (Reader in Media and Politics, School of Media and Communication, University of Westminster)

Abstract
 Institutional actors increasingly employ digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence to counter corruption. Civil society actors, including social movements organizations and grassroots activist groups, are also embracing digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence at a swift pace across the world. Although this seems to be a phenomenon that occurs on a global scale, we still know little about it. However, understanding how activists embed digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence in their grassroots struggles against corruption is relevant for at least two reasons. First, these are not just tools in the hands of civil society and social movement actors. Instead, they bring with them materials and imagined affordances that might have an impact on how corruption is understood and redefined from the grassroots; also, they mobilize a series of technical competences that goes beyond the mere sphere of politics, hence demanding a reframing of what it means to be an anti-corruption activist and what it takes to be an anti-corruption organization. Second, and related to the previous point, digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence as they are employed to counter corruption call into question the very notion of how people can come together to fight corruptive behaviors beyond governmental institutions, hence experimenting with innovative forms of social accountability, deeply tied to technologies. The panel, thus, invites scholars who tackle one or more of the following questions either through case studies or through theoretical reflections:


  *   How do activists across the world create, imagine, and employ digital media to counter different types of corruption in different parts of the globe?
  *   How do they collaborate with experts in the creation of digital media platforms, big data management, and artificial intelligence development to counter corruption?
  *   Who are the other actors, beyond activists and their organizations, that employ digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence to counter corruption beyond the top-down efforts of governmental institutions?
  *   In which ways are they able to combine with other forms of communication that do not rest on digital media?
  *   Are digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence always the most appropriate tools to counter corruption from the grassroots?
  *   Which are the challenges and opportunities that the use of digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence to counter corruption from the grassroots imply for civil society actors?
  *   Which are the intended and unintended outcomes of anti-corruption activists' use of digital media, algorithmic automation, and artificial intelligence, both in the political realm at large and, more specifically, for the anti-corruption sector?

The panel invites scholars who are working on these and related topics in different fields of studies and through different methodological lenses. The panel also welcomes papers that compare case studies across the world and use mixed-methods research designs.

Please send your proposed paper title, keywords (max. 8) and a 500 word abstract to alice.mattoni at unibo.it<mailto:alice.mattoni at unibo.it> by 10 February 2020.



Reader in Media and Politics
Course Leader of the MA in Media, Campaigning and Social Change<https://www.westminster.ac.uk/journalism-and-mass-communication-courses/2017-18/september/full-time/media-campaigning-and-social-change-ma>
Co-Leader of the Arts, Communication and Culture Research Community
School of Media and Communication
University of Westminster


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